The Crusades Were a Response to Jihad
For those of you with an interest in the "crusades," The American Thinker has a good post explaining the notion of Islamic jihad taken from contemporary medieval Muslim sources as well as Christian. I encourage everyone to read and absorb this information as an antidote to the historical revisionism of the "crusades" being propagated by the media, including the just-released movie, "Kingdom of Heaven."
If you aren't inclined to click on the above link, here is my summary:
After the death of Muhammad in 632 AD, Islam spread out from Arabia like a wildfire, burning through North Africa, Palestine, Asia Minor, the Iberian Penninsula, the Middle East (all the way to India), Greece and much of Eastern Europe all the way into Poland before finally being held back at the gates of Vienna in 1683.
Charlemagne beat back the invasion of France in the 770's & 780's and Spain finally defeated and banished the final remnant of Islam in Cordoba in 1492.
Muslim theology justified the forced conversion, enslavement, pillaging, subjugation, conquest and mass slaughter of Christians and Jews under the rubric of jihad or "holy war."
Most all of the land conquered by the Muslim armies had been governed and populated by Christians and, to a far lesser degree, Jews.
Until this violent sweep of Islam across entire continents, Christendom had not formulated any notion of "holy war." The Crusades, beginning with the First Crusade in 1096-1099, were a Christian response to jihad; a desperate attempt at self-defense and the reclamation of cities, nations and trade routes seized by the jihadis over the previous 400 years.
UPDATE: Read my review of "Kingdom of Heaven" here.
If you aren't inclined to click on the above link, here is my summary:
After the death of Muhammad in 632 AD, Islam spread out from Arabia like a wildfire, burning through North Africa, Palestine, Asia Minor, the Iberian Penninsula, the Middle East (all the way to India), Greece and much of Eastern Europe all the way into Poland before finally being held back at the gates of Vienna in 1683.
Charlemagne beat back the invasion of France in the 770's & 780's and Spain finally defeated and banished the final remnant of Islam in Cordoba in 1492.
Muslim theology justified the forced conversion, enslavement, pillaging, subjugation, conquest and mass slaughter of Christians and Jews under the rubric of jihad or "holy war."
Most all of the land conquered by the Muslim armies had been governed and populated by Christians and, to a far lesser degree, Jews.
Until this violent sweep of Islam across entire continents, Christendom had not formulated any notion of "holy war." The Crusades, beginning with the First Crusade in 1096-1099, were a Christian response to jihad; a desperate attempt at self-defense and the reclamation of cities, nations and trade routes seized by the jihadis over the previous 400 years.
UPDATE: Read my review of "Kingdom of Heaven" here.
posted by Bird of Paradise at 3:56 PM
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